


Blue

by LiesToFeed



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Love at First Sight, M/M, Modern Era, painter/journalist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 01:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiesToFeed/pseuds/LiesToFeed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi, a painter, has had a certain recurring dream since he could remember having dreams. It influenced his work and his life, eventually leading him to satisfaction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue

The white ceilings were really starting to piss him off. Their clean surface, no evidence of a single mishap. Every morning, he would stare up at that ceiling with such distaste, until one time, he realized. He wanted to mark it. It's strikingly bare surface, void of any personality, needed to be blue. The haunting hue that plagued him nearly every day. The blue he sees in crystal eyes every night in his dreams, the eyes he stares into until he wakes up to white walls.  
He rushed out of his bed and to the his craft room to grab the huge tarp he used for his big projects and his favorite can of paint. Quickly, but still neatly, he placed down the tarp over his bed and floor. He dragged out the other little pieces of furniture, small end tables and a barely used desk, all for the sake of keeping their clean black surface pristine. After popping off the lid of the paint buckets he constantly used, he looked at the ceiling with disgust for the last time.  
The paint was beautiful, dripping down onto his skin and marring up his own pale canvas. The sunlight seeped through the drops, turning the teal a mockingly shimmering tone. While it was beautiful, it was no comparison to the much more dazzling crystals he would see in his dreams.  
xx  
"What did you do?!" Hanji had exclaimed, staring up at the ceiling of Levi's room. The man at question sat on his bed, the blue tarp crinkling under his wake as he shifted to tap off the burned edge of his cigarette into his ashtray.  
"I had the dream again."  
xx  
"Really, Levi, I don't understand why. You're the cleanest person I've ever met, I remember when I had to convince you that cleaning off your brush after each stroke was a waste! Why did you throw paint onto your ceiling?!"  
Hanji was his flat mate, one of the few people he could tolerate. She was a scientist, proclaiming that the field of genetics was her own art form. They had met while Levi was in college, studying for his BFA. They entertained the idea of a romance between them briefly but it was extremely short lived, Levi obviously not as interested as Hanji may or may not have been. Now they live together, nearly five years after they both graduated.  
"Stop shouting, I hear you perfectly fine from three feet."  
"What was your dream about?"  
"Not hearing your voice for ten minutes, it was actually very relaxing."  
Even though she had asked, it was obvious what the answer really was. The same dream he's always remembered having, if he dreamt at all. A field of lush green grass, small speckles of lilacs and other assortment of purple foliage and a boy. They met under a tall oak tree and Levi would start sobbing as he stared into crystal teal eyes, watched as they cracked slowly. Just before he would wake up, the boy would smile, whisper something, and vanish with a strong breeze. Every time he woke up from that dream, he'd felt like he had forgotten something. Like when you promise yourself you'd do something in the morning but by the time the afternoon sun was high in the sky, you couldn't quite recall what your promise was.  
Hanji's gaze was tender but worrisome as Levi picked at his scrambled eggs. Before anything else could be said, the buzzer for the front door went off. They both stared at it for a moment before Levi glared at her, "Well, go answer it."  
When she did, it was a FedEx mail man, with a large envelope. After signing something and waving him goodbye, she brought it over to Levi. "It's for you."  
With tentative hands, he ripped open the goldenrod paper with a new cigarette dangling from his lips. He grinned slightly when reading the letter inside, tossing it onto their dining table and leaning back onto his seat.  
"Where do you want to get dinner tonight, Hanji?"  
xx  
The exhibit was under consideration for months before the venue had agreed to it. Levi had been working on his line of paintings and sculptures for years, finally building up to this moment.  
In just a few weeks, he would have his first showcase since graduating. The paperwork was tiring and the meetings with snobby assholes left him irritated by the end of the day. But finally, after scolding almost all of the crew who set up his exhibit for not putting a painting up right, it was time. The name of the exhibit was Tout à coup, a showcase of paintings and hand carved sculptures.  
Levi basically chain smoked himself through two packs before the exhibit even opened, his calm exterior near the hinges. Hanji had been his guest of honor, since Hanji was one of the few people in his life that was with him during his entire artistic journey. They both arrived well before it was opening time, a few journalists and special guests of the venue milling around. They each came up to Levi once he arrived, loaded up with questions that were ready to get fired. The repetition of each one was numbing, forcing himself to answer instead of telling them to ask the guy before him.  
"Why Tout à coup?"  
"Blue is my favorite color."  
"What was your main source of inspiration?"  
"That's private."  
"You're favorite medium?"  
"A clean paintbrush."  
"Is that your girlfriend?"  
"Absolutely not."  
An hour had passed, a long and excruciating hour, until the doors opened to the public. The venue had promised a big crowd, with an amazing rapport in the art community and a good street team to advertise. The caterers had slowly started to trickle into the mix, handing out small finger foods and fancy drinks. Levi had stopped every single one of the waiters with the tall glasses of sparkling champagne each time. Eventually though, as the night progressed and people got more relaxed, so did he. The artist had already sold a handful of paintings at ridiculous prices and was starting to feel a tender buzz of warmth from the alcohol he had been practically chugging.  
"Mr. Rivaille! This is a sucess, would you say?" The head of the venue showed up with open arms, a jubilant smile of victory.  
"It would seem so." Levi responded, sipping on the new glass he'd somehow gotten. He doesn't quite remember how it showed up. The collar of his semi-formal outfit was starting to itch though and he could start feeling the chill of need in his veins, "I'm going to have a cigarette." He nodded farewell to the blonde, making his way to the exit. Before he was even out of the door, he had a cigarette perched in his lips and lighter in hand. The moment he step foot outdoors, he light it up and took in the needy pull and made way for the side of the building. Just as he started to really unwind, he heard a voice ringing not too far away.  
"Mikasa, do we have to? The professor said it wasn't even mandatory. "  
"Yes, Eren. I think you'll like some of it anyway."  
"Eren, this is a great opportunity to write about something you're not used to."  
The arguing continued, finally earning Levi's glance. The trio were making their way inside and all Levi saw was a oddly familiar mop of brown hair and a glimpse of blue. The artist froze in place, staring at the door in disbelief. Dropping the cigarette, he made his way inside hastily. The crowd that had at first pleased him now was a nuisance, looking around frantically. He pushed through the throngs of people, looking around for the boy he had just seen.  
It felt odd, almost like he was in a dream. There was no way though... how could the figment of most of his inspiration and dreams be real? There would be only one way to find out. There had been few before that had almost lead him to believe that they were the object of his searches, but their eyes never matched. Since then, he had given up and just decided to continue dreaming.  
Levi bumped into Hanji at one of the most popular paintings, looking at her with scorn.  
"Woah, what happened?" She had asked, looking at him with worry.  
"It's not impo-" There he was.  
Right behind Hanji, staring at his painting.  
Levi willed himself to move, scolded himself repeatedly to pick up his god damn feet and move. But it didn't happen. Suddenly, he felt like his ankles were held down by concrete blocks and he was drowning in a foggy river. When the boy had turned back to companions and started walking, so did Levi, finally.  
He reached out, grasped onto the sleeve of the tan leather jacket he was wearing and pulled. The boy stopped immediately, looking back at Levi with question. Then his eyes widened. They stared at each other, the familiar oceans of teal and blue mixing together haunting him.  
Behind him, he could hear Hanji calling out his name and behind the boy his friends had returned just as confused of their halted companion. But they both were oblivious, too caught up in each other. The boy's mouth started to open, as if to ask something but Levi beat him to it.  
"Outside."  
The boy nodded and followed Levi when he started to walk away. He could hear the kids the boy came in with call his name, Eren, but it was ignored.  
x  
The color midnight blue was obviously the word he would use to describe the night sky above him, blue with small specks of silver and white begging to shine through the layers of light pollution.  
They stood side by side for a silent moment, just absorbed in each other.  
"Why did you... stop me?" The boy, Eren, finally asked.  
"It seemed like you knew why." Levi hesitantly answered.  
There was another short pause of silence.  
"Did you... was I in your dreams too?" Eren had asked quietly, obviously shy and hesitant to the question. Levi looked over just as he did, gazing into the eyes he was extremely familiar with.  
"What's your name?"  
"Eren. Yeager. What's yours?"  
"Levi Rivaille." 

xx

**Author's Note:**

> My first work in the SNK fandom. I saw once a post on Tumblr about Levi being a painter who had dreams about Eren and painted him and what not.  
> For anyone who is curious, Tout a coupe means Out of the Blue in french. That's why when the reporter asked "Why Tout a coupe" he said Blue was his favorite color.  
> I might do a second chapter of people like this? IDK I won't promise anything......  
> Sorry for any mistakes, I kinda rushed this one out.  
> This was pretty fun. Expect more drabbles and what not from me soon.  
> I'm at the half way point of a multi chap fic. Chef AU anyone...?


End file.
